Judas and the Black Messiah

Judas and the Black Messiah is a 2021 American biographical crime drama film directed and produced by Shaka King, who wrote the screenplay with Will Berson, based on a story by the pair and Kenny and Keith Lucas. The film is about the betrayal of Fred Hampton (played by Daniel Kaluuya), chairman of the Illinois chapter of the Black Panther Party in the late-1960s Chicago, by William O'Neal (played by LaKeith Stanfield), an FBI informant. Jesse Plemons, Dominique Fishback, Ashton Sanders, Darrell Britt-Gibson, Lil Rel Howery, Algee Smith, Dominique Thorne, and Martin Sheen also star. A Fred Hampton biopic had been in the works for several years, with the Lucas brothers and Will Berson writing and shopping screenplays individually since 2014. Berson's version almost got made with F. Gary Gray directing, but King was hired to direct when that fell through. The cast joined in 2019, with the blessings of Hampton's family, with filming beginning that fall in Ohio. Judas and the Black Messiah premiered at the 2021 Sundance Film Festival on February 1, 2021, and was released in the United States by Warner Bros. Pictures on February 12, simultaneously in theaters and digitally on HBO Max. Released amid the COVID-19 pandemic, the film grossed $7 million worldwide against a budget of $26 million. The film was lauded by critics, who praised King's direction, the cinematography, the screenplay, the performances (particularly Kaluuya, Stanfield, and Fishback), and its timely themes. Judas and the Black Messiah earned six Oscar nominations at the 93rd Academy Awards, including Best Picture and Best Supporting Actor for both Kaluuya and Stanfield, with the former winning, and Best Original Song ("Fight for You"). For his performance, Kaluuya also won Best Supporting Actor at the Golden Globes, Critics' Choice Awards, Screen Actors Guild Awards, and BAFTA Awards. Since then, it has been cited as one of the best films of the 2020s and the 21st century.